Sorry for the bad video, but that's all I could find.
Assvertising
The creative team at Axe Body Spray—the stinky man-goop that supposedly makes any guy instantly irresistible to beautiful (and powerful) women—wrapped a women's dorm in a "calendar" labeled "Axe schedule" for a recent ad campaign. Because if you wear Axe, you can have every woman in this dorm, get it? Looking at the photo, I don't know what's more disturbing—the idea that the aim of wearing Axe is to screw (and ditch) as many women as possible, or the fact that all the women in the photo are posed by their windows in various stages of undress, putting the viewer in the position of peeping Tom. Either way, it's an epic advertising fail.
Via Neatorama, which calls the ad "a little bit sexist." Ya think?
[Assvertising: Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty, Twenty-One, Twenty-Two, Twenty-Three, Twenty-Four, Twenty-Five, Twenty-Six, Twenty-Seven, Twenty-Eight, Twenty-Nine, Thirty, Thirty-One, Thirty-Two, Thirty-Three, Thirty-Four, Thirty-Five, Thirty-Six, Thirty-Seven, Thirty-Eight, Thirty-Nine, Forty, Forty-One, Forty-Two, Forty-Three, Forty-Four, Forty-Five, Forty-Six", Forty-Seven, Forty-Eight, Forty-Nine, Fifty, Fifty-One,Fifty-Two, Fifty-Three,Fifty-Four, Fifty-Five, Fifty-Six, Fifty-Seven, Fifty-Eight, Fifty-Nine, Sixty, Sixty-One, Sixty-Two, Sixty-Three, Sixty-Four, Sixty-Five, Sixty-Six, Sixty-Seven.]
Question of the Day
Who (or what) is your favorite movie monster?
Usually I'm not so "stick to the classics" (wait, yes I am!), but I'll have to go with the Gill Man, more commonly referred to as "The Creature from The Black Lagoon." (Kind of like how Frankenstein's monster is referred to as "Frankenstein." No, he's the monster, dammit!) All of the famous classic Universal monsters are great, but that movie is just fantastic. That scene when he walks towards the camera, claws raised, and you can see his gills moving as he gasps for air... wow.
Honorable mention goes to The Blob, because I love the concept, and Burt Bacharach wrote its theme song.
The 21st Century Ain't What It Used To Be
As much as I felt loathe loath (thank you, grammar patrol!) to do, this weekend I finally gave in and got a cell phone. Now I can rest assured that should I show up at a bus depot outside Chicago on a snowy, shivery day, Liss and company will be waiting curbside to greet me, trusty car heater pushing back the frost, all because I'd called ahead to let them know my arrival time. Such are the conveniences of the 21st century.
Of course, I immediately sent my new number to Melissa, and a short while later her inaugural text message hit my screen: "Ur an asshole." I respond with the equally clever and mature "You are!"
Now I totally feel like Buster Crabbe, living in a future where messages are beamed through time and space in the blink on an eye, and I am told, once again, that I'm an asshole. Welcome to the 21st century.
Sometime later she emails me "Btw, please tell me that 'ur an asshole' was the first text message you got."
"It was the first one I got calling me an asshole." I love the 21st century.
Duh of the Day
Republican Base Heavily White, Conservative, Religious: Gallup finds that 89% of Republicans are white, and 63% of Republicans identify specifically as white conservatives.
These data reinforce the basic challenge facing the Republican Party today as it ponders how best to remedy a situation that finds Democrats in control of the White House and both houses of Congress. Republicans have a clear monopoly on the allegiance of white conservative Americans, but the GOP's challenge is figuring out whether this is enough of a base on which to build for the future.Sure it is. If by "future," you mean building a time machine and going back to the eighteenth century.
Humor Fail
[Trigger warning.]
Rare is the day when you will find me mounting a vociferous defense on behalf of Eminem, who, despite the fact that I find him an extremely talented performer, regularly makes my skin crawl with his insistence on using that talent to pen tracks rife with misogyny, homophobia, fat hatred, and rape fantasy. But here's the thing: That doesn't give anyone the license to molest him for comedy.
(I can't actually believe I have to write that sentence, but that's the sort of thing I've had to write a lot during the "Rape is Hilarious" series, the latest installment of which can be found here, with the rest linked at its bottom.)
If you can't view the video, it's a clip from the 2009 MTV Music Awards in which Sacha Baron-Cohen (aka "Borat"), in his Bruno (a gay fashionista) persona, is swinging out over the audience on a harness dressed as a "dove of peace" in feathered wings and skirt (under which he is wearing only an ass-bearing jockstrap) when his harness appears to get caught and tangled. He is lowered face-down on Eminem's lap, at which point his (clothed) balls and (naked) ass are directly in Eminem's face. Eminem looks horrified and, in my estimation, scared, as he asks, "Are you serious?"
Eminem and his entourage roughly shove Baron-Cohen off of him, as Baron-Cohen says, "Hey, don't touch me, guys! I've already got a boyfriend!" and the audience roars with laughter while Eminem walks out.
All of this, of course, is hilarious—and has further been justified because it "exposed Eminem's hypocrisy" since he can "dish it out, but can't take it." ("It" being his habit of being an asshole to other people, which he is, but I've not heard he routinely molests people in public for yuks, so it's a pretty weird construction.)
The rationale also goes back to the ostensible raison d'être for the Bruno character, which is exploiting people's homophobia and holding it out for ridicule—a dubious proposition given that Baron-Cohen is not himself gay, thus allowing homophobes the opportunity to laugh unironically at the gay stereotype being played by a straight man. It's a caricature which, by the way, relies heavily on "the predatory gay" narrative, which is in conspicuous evidence here, and not only demonizes gay men as rapists, but casts straight men as the primary targets of rape (thereby also effectively disappearing the reality that they are the primary perpetrators of rape).
That alone would make it a total clusterfuck, but then there's this: Eminem has alluded to, on multiple occasions, having been molested as a child. (His new album contains a widely discussed track in which he imagines a child being raped by a stepfather.) I don't know for certain whether he has been, although I suspect it's likely given his fascination with the subject and his evident anger surrounding it. It's really incidental, except insomuch as how much worse this will have been for him if he is a survivor of sexual abuse.
And because there was more reason than usual to stop and think about how fucked-up this "joke" really is.
Baron-Cohen certainly is aware of the same almost-but-not-quite admissions Eminem has made about his childhood that I am, and he went ahead with this stunt, anyway. Most of the people in that audience, and probably most of the people who have viewed the video and found it hilarious, are aware of the possibility that Baron-Cohen was sticking his genitals and butt into the face of someone who is very likely a survivor of sexual abuse.
Yet it's all so goddamned funny—because most of us won't even make the connection between what Baron-Cohen is doing and sexual abuse.
We are soaking in a rape culture where a dude sticking his balls in someone else's face without his consent as a "joke" seems normal.
Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco: "We're not negative; we're contemptuous."
Recommended Reading:
Dr. George Tiller: Why I Help Women and Families
Jill: Who killed George Tiller?
Media Matters: MSNBC runs graphic with Tiller's picture and "Abortion Doctors Under Fire"
Marcella: Carnival Against Sexual Violence 71
Renee: Classified Ad Calls for the Assassination of Obama
jozjozjoz: Racist Camera! No, I did not blink… I'm just Asian!
Leave your links in comments...
I Get Letters
Shaker Aidan emails (which I am posting with her permission):
I have a question: what do you say to men who call you "negative"? I get called that more than I'd like, and it is frustrating for me to be so angry at things like marriage equality, anti-choice people, the fact that I'm related to these people, et cetera, and not have an outlet. Should I just shrug them off?One of the most common questions I get by email is how to deal with people who use that tired old silencing technique of calling progressives "negative," or some variation thereof, e.g. "hysterical" or "reactionary" or the ubiquitous "easily offended."
My favorite response, which I keep always at the ready—and have used in comments as well as in real life—is: "I'm not [wev]. I'm contemptuous."
And when I'm feeling loquacious: "It's not that I'm [wev]; I am merely contemptuous of the idea that I should not expect more, and I am unafraid to express my disdain."
Delivered with panache, it is withering enough to crumple even the most determined adversary, yet nonconfrontational enough to avoid escalation with even the most belligerent.
It's very handy indeed.
What Do You Do...
...when you were one of the people shrieking the loudest over the DHS report on right-wing terrorism, calling it a "hit job" and an "indictment of conservatives" (when it said nothing at all about "conservatives"), and it turns out to be scarily accurate?
Well, when you're Michelle Malkin, you go into full-on deny and misdirect mode and villify "the Left," of course, under the guise of a plea for "decency." Of course, she scolds people for making "political points" while making a political point without a trace of irony, but I suppose that just gives me more proof that irony is completely dead.Unfortunately, some are not content to leave it at that for now. They fail to respect that there is a proper time and place to indulge in political battle.
I don't know about you, but I think it's time for some "unhinged" discourse; it's about time these acts are labeled "terrorism." It's about time we started calling people like Malkin out for reprehensible shit like putting "hate" in scare quotes. It's about time sentiment like "both sides are just as bad" is dismissed as the lie that it is.
You can go here, here, and here for all that. Another round-up here.
Tiller's family is grieving. Those who have jumped to score political points before Tiller is even buried are no better than the Phelps family thugs of the "Westboro Baptist Church" who respect no bounds of civility.
Unfortunately, it's too much to ask the cable news networks and hyper-partisan snipers on the Internet to have the decency to restrain themselves.
Prepare for a wall-to-wall onslaught of gleeful finger-pointing on the Left and heated responses on the Right.
Prepare for whitewashed hagiographies of Tiller's career as an abortionist.
Prepare for DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano's defenders to gloat about vindication.
Prepare for collective demonization of pro-lifers and Christians — and more gratuitous attempts to tar talk radio, Fox News, and the Tea Party movement as responsible for the heinous crime.
Prepare for the continuing redefinition of any and all sharp political disagreement as "hate" — a ruinous trend that inevitably comes back to haunt the hysterical accusers decrying "hate" the loudest.
How unhinged has the discourse gotten already? Here's the left-wing Daily Kos going after the left-wing John Aravosis for going after Barack Obama because he didn't go after "right-wing extremism" hard enough.
The DHS report was, of course, correct. The media let "conservatives" shout it down. Their foot-stomping resulted in it being pulled. And now Dr. George Tiller is dead.
How are those "Right-Wing Extremist" t-shirts selling, you fucking assholes?
Bats in Peril
Danger! The little brown bat is one of six bat species in the northeastern United States affected by an ongoing epidemic associated with White Nose Syndrome (WNS). Photo from Mammalwatching.com.
Robert Zimmerman reports in the 29 May issue of Science:
An unknown killer has been wiping out populations of six species of hibernating bats in the northeastern United States in what appears to be the biggest die-off on record. So far, scientists studying the problem have more questions than answers. The task is urgent. The disappearance of these bats could have larger impacts on ecosystems, as these night flyers hunt insects that annoy humans and damage crops. And last October, a group of more than 100 participants from a science strategy meeting concluded that if the problem continues to expand at its current rate, entire species—including the endangered big-eared bat in Virginia and Indiana—could be in jeopardy.Not only do bats eat insects that destroy crops, but they are also important as pollinators and seed distributors. In February 2006, researchers in New York state began noticing a drop in bat populations and an increasing number of dead bats. This bat die-off has now spread to Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia.
The journal Science first published a brief report about White-Nose Syndrome in January 2009. David Blehert of the USGS's National Wildlife Health Center and thirteen coauthors described the discovery of a previously uncharacterized species of Geomyces fungus covering the muzzles, ears, and wings of little brown bats in Albany, NY. The National Wildlife Health Center of the USGS has a PDF of that paper available for free on their website.
Blehert et. al. initially speculated that the Geomyces fungus could be an emerging pathogen causing bat deaths, but researchers now think it is more likely that the fungus is opportunistically infecting bats who are already compromised by another disease. According to Zimmerman,
Further tests by Blehert's group may settle the issue. Since last fall, researchers and recreational cavers have been collecting soil samples from more than 200 sites in almost 30 states. If Geomyces spp. turns out to be present in unaffected sites distant from the syndrome's epicenter, the fungus may not be the primary pathogen. Blehert expects results by the fall.Other researchers, including DeeAnn Reeder of Bucknell University and Marianne Moore of Boston University, are exploring whether the bats' immune systems are compromised in WNS. Immune compromise could lead to infection by normally benign fungi.
It appears that the proximal cause of death in WNS may be starvation, since dead bats are found with little to no body fat reserves. H. Kathleen Dannelly of Indiana State University in Terre Haute is focusing on affected bats' ability to digest chitin (the protein in insect exoskeletons). Bats rely on gut microoganisms to produce chitinase, the enzyme that breaks down chitin. Bats with WNS appear to have abnormally low numbers of these chitinase-producing bacteria in their guts, which could lead to dangerously low body fat reserves.
Zimmerman concludes,
Meanwhile, researchers are taking measures to prevent the accidental spread of pathogens; gear is either new or thoroughly washed and disinfected. And on 26 March, FWS recommended a voluntary moratorium on all recreational caving in any state where white-nose syndrome has been found within or adjacent to its borders. Then, on 24 April, the U.S. Forest Service closed all caves and mines for 1 year in all national forests in the northeastern United States. A similar closure for the southeastern United States is expected before the end of May.The full text of the 29 May report is behind a subscription wall at Sciencemag.org for those with access.
More links:
A WNS summary from the Fish and Wildlife Service, including a list of cave closures.
There is much more about bats in general at the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology's Animal Diversity Web.
I Write Letters
Dear President Obama,
As you have no doubt heard, Dr. George Tiller was murdered yesterday. Mr. President, I can't yet say that sentence without crying. Partly, I am crying because I am sad—because of the hurt I feel for Dr. Tiller's family and friends; because Dr. Tiller was someone who I admired; because I have long feared the threats and murder attempts Dr. Tiller would inevitable yield this result.
Partly, I am crying because I am scared. This was a terrorist act, one in an ongoing campaign against Dr. Tiller, who was one target among many in a bigger campaign against women and the people who provide abortion services and safe havens for them—but no one in our government will call it terrorism. There are, in fact, a lot of things that don't get called terrorism in this country, but few of them approach the breadth of the long-term, flagrant campaign of intimidation, harassment, exhorted violence, attempted violence, actual violence, and murder of abortion providers and abortion-seeking women.
Still, our government is unwilling to call this orchestrated, overt, unapologetic campaign against women and their healthcare providers terrorism, even as increasing numbers of doctors say offering the legal service to their patients is not worth the risk—the very definition of effective terrorism. Even as physician champions of women's right to choose are murdered in cold blood. Even as "pro-life" groups openly celebrate his death and take the position that he deserved it. Mr. President, in the history of my blog, I've gotten death threats right in my comments threads by people who know that the government will not take them seriously, people who have left links to pictures of dead fetuses and pictures of Dr. George Tiller pictured in a sniper's crosshairs. I am scared for whoever will be next, if the government continues to fail to take this terrorist campaign seriously.
And partly, I am crying because I'm angry. Your statement, upon hearing of Dr. Tiller's death, was that you are "shocked" and "outraged," that you believe: "However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence." Mr. President, if you had been paying the slightest bit of attention to the realities of the front line of the fight to protect women's bodily autonomy, you would not be shocked. This wasn't even the first attempt on Dr. Tiller's life; it was the merely the first successful one.
I'm angry because you have been admonishing pro-choice advocates to respect the views of anti-choice activists, despite the fact there is very good reason not to afford a modicum of respect for a viewpoint that would force women to relinquish control over their own bodies to the state. I'm angry because you don't seem to get that both sides of this "debate" aren't equal, and it's not just because one side contains mainstream organizations who tacitly encourage the murder of doctors. I'm angry because you invited to do the invocation at your inauguration a man who equates abortion with the Holocaust, and you don't seem to have a problem with that, nor recognize how perilously inflammatory it is. I'm angry because you tell lies about pro-choice advocates in order to play your bullshit game of "both sides are just as bad."
Ann Friedman says Dr. Tiller's murder should be a wake-up call about clinic violence, and I see that Attorney General Holder has ordered increased security for "a host of unnamed individuals and facilities" as a result of his death. But I also hope that his murder will be a wake-up call to you, sir, to stop relying on dangerously dishonest rhetoric about abortion, its supporters, and its opponents.
Both sides are not just as bad, Mr. President, and it's high fucking time you figured that out.
Sincerely,
Melissa McEwan
Shaker Sunday Brunch
Calling all Shakers -- Please join scott madin and me at Shakesville Sunday Brunch -- at this link:
Shakesville Brunch Chat on Skype
If you have any trouble getting in, skype message me at portlydyke and I'll help you get in.
Dr. George Tiller has been murdered in Kansas…
Dr. George Tiller has been shot and murdered in Kansas.
Dr. Tiller was an out-spoken supporter of abortion rights and one of the few physicians who provided late-term abortion services in the country.
My thoughts are with his family, friends and colleagues.
"Women and Families are intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, and ethically competent to struggle with complex health issues -- including abortion -- and come to decisions that are appropriate for themselves."
George R. Tiller, M.D., DABFP
Medical Director
Women's Health Care Services, P.A.
May he rest in peace…
The Defenders
A video made by a friend of someone I went to high school with (thank you Facebook! LOL):
Enjoy Feeling Uncomfortable?
That's the question Deron Bauman asks about the feeling created by this video, which I saw on ClusterFlock.
I'm still looking for evidence that this is satire. Has to be, right? Lyrics after the fold, but I just had to highlight a few.
A mildly amusing moment: A young white man who attends Dartmouth raps, "It's not the hand you were given, but how you lay down your cards."
WTF moment 1: Rapping, "Don't matter if your (sic) gay, straight, Christian or Muslim," after having said, "Thank you Miss Cali for reminding us of marriage," and after issuing the warning that "Terrorists were imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Now they're in our neighborhoods, planning out doomsday."
WTF moment 2: Rapping, "Everyone can succeed, Because our soldiers bleed"
Just a little musical interlude for your Saturday afternoon.
H/T Laurie, whom you should really, really follow on Twitter
Serious C:
“Yo this ones for all the young conservatives.
I rep the Northeast and I’m still a young con,
Let your voice release, you don't have to be obamatrons.
I debate any poser who don't shoot straight,
Government spending needs to deflate,
Your ideas are lightweight,
Ya careers in checkmate
I frustrate. I increase the pulse rate
I hate when,
government dictatin, makin, statements, bout how to be a merchant,
How to run a restaurant, how to lay the pavement
Bailout a business, but can't protect an infant
Deficiencies are blatant, young con treatment
I stand one man, outnumbered at my college
Thank you Miss Cali for reminding us of marriage
Can't support abortion, and call yourself a Christian
I support life, you're a puzzled politician
Terrorists were imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay,
Now they're in our neighborhoods, planning out doomsday
No such thing as utopia,
no government can control ya, baby ya,
Reap the benefits hard work, self reliant
Listen to Stiltz, my dude’s a lyrical giant
Yo Stiltz... make it two time... please”
Stiltz:
“I'm 6'9 head and shoulder above the rest
Liberals playin checkers, I'm playin chess
My conservative view is drill baby drill
You can say you hate me but
I'm praying for you still
My dislike for thee most def is not hyperbole
Taxes are the subject and I will spit them verbally
I'm just livin life a conservative philosophy
Sorry Hilary not a right wing conspiracy
We need more women with intellectual integrity
I'm talkin Megyn Kelly not Nancy Pelosi
My main motto is you best work hard
It's not the hand you were given, but how you lay down your cards
I don't speak lies but I spit the facts
28% the new capital gains tax
Porkulus bill lacks a few stats
The more money we spend, the more mine is worth Jack
The Bible says we're a people under God,
Usin radar for radical Jihad
AIG was hooked up by Chris Dodd
A classy gift ain't an Ipod
The standards of my crew ain’t republicans dude
I'm reppin Jesus Christ and conservative views
Study history and true conservative moves
Every single time they refuse to lose
I’m starting to see a modern day Jimmy Carter
When really nothin but a Reagan era starter”
Serious C:
“Yo, We americans son
Hit ya with some knowledge
The movement has begun
Everyone can succeed
Because our soldiers bleed, for us
I said it in the verse,
now I'll say it in the chorus”
Stiltz:
“We young conservatives son
Hard work is our motto
The movement has begun
EVERYONE can succeed cause our soldiers bleed, daily
My views are rock solid, no chance you can break me”
Serious C:
“Phase me, make me, into something that ain’t me
Serious c... can’t nobody shake me
great like the Gatsby, poppin posers like acne
Don't matter if your gay, straight, Christian or Muslim
There's one thing we all hate, called socialism.
It's loathsome, and America ain’t the outcome,
Raise taxes on the people,
And you’re gonna feel symptoms, problems
I gotta message for a young con:
superman that socialism,
waterboard that terrorism”
Stiltz:
I fulfill the role that's inherently mine
Teaching politics through my rap and my rhyme
I'm signing off this track with a question in mind
How will this country get its precious change in time?
Three things taught me conservative love:
Jesus, Ronald Reagan, plus Atlas Shrugged
Saving our nation from inflation devastation
On my hands and my knees praying for salvation”
Serious C:
“Yo, We americans son
Hit ya with some knowledge
The movement has begun
Everyone can succeed
Because our soldiers bleed, for us
I said it in the verse,
now I'll say it in the chorus”
Stiltz:
“We young conservatives son
Hard work is our motto
The movement has begun
EVERYONE can succeed cause our soldiers bleed, daily
My views are rock solid, no chance you can break me”
Saturday Morning Cartoonery: Bully for Bugs
Bully for Bugs (1952). Story by Michael Maltese; directed by Charles M. Jones.
I knew I shoulda taken that left toyn at Albaquoyque!
Darn Women, Getting Themselves Raped and Making Life Difficult for the Menz
by Shaker roramich, who lives with her partner Shaker JMonkey in Oregon, where she reads and occasionally guest posts for Shakesville in the hope of MORE for their 5-year-old daughter.
[Trigger warning for text, but no triggering images.]
Early this morning I was greeted with this headline at the Boston Globe homepage where the top headline was "FBI investigating alleged misconduct at T Academy" (where apparently the Boston Transportation authority trains cadets). The link has since been moved lower on the page, but when I saw it, the article was the top, front and center story.
Of course, any misconduct, of any kind, at a training facility that will send graduates out to interact with the public while carrying loaded weapons is inherently problematic. But what was much more troubling than the headline was the one line of the story underneath which indicated that the investigation regards whether superior officers (apparently male but not labeled as such in the "teaser") coerced female cadets "into having sex." Uhm, NO. Any use of coercion means they were NOT having sex!!!
The full story continues the fiction that it wasn't really alleged rape with the even weirder headline at the page that includes the full article, reading "Female cadets allegedly forced into having sex." Again, as Shakers well know, and the Globe certainly OUGHT TO KNOW, forcing someone into sexual intercourse is rape, even if the actual events are still alleged at this point in the investigation. The rest of the article includes the details that it was male superior officers allegedly doing the forcing of female cadets, possibly extending as far back as 2002. The douchebag head of the officer's union trots out the tired canard that the investigation will hurt the officers' abilities to do their jobs, saying: "The members who I represent perform their duties professionally, and to the extent that their academy is being viewed as inappropriate, it is going to hurt all of their abilities to perform their jobs." Right, dudebro—having the academy the subject of negative scrutiny is the problem, not alleged rape of cadets. Thanks for showing me your extensive (and stinky) privilege.
And just to cap it off, the authors of the article close with this valuable information: "Graduates of the academy contacted by the Globe expressed disbelief that sexual misconduct would have happened.""I don't think that occurred within my class," said a former female cadet who asked not to be named because she is working for a police department."
Gee, thanks for such a stellar job reporting; how many graduates did you talk to? 1? 5? 10? How many women have graduated from the academy since 2002? Am I supposed to believe that you talked to them all? Plus, thanks for yet more (stinky) privilege; just because three reporters could locate ONE woman who didn't believe it happened is supposed to be convincing evidence that nothing ever happened? Maude help us.
Finally, just to make us all feel so much better, in "completely unrelated news," the Globe also reports (separate article) that 200 patrol officers will soon be outfitted with M16 assault rifles "to counter terrorist threats" according to department officials. Right, let's for sure deal with terrorist threats on the streets of Boston, rather than home-grown terrorists working in their own training academy.
If you'd like to use your teaspoon to politely request that the Globe call alleged rape what it is, instead of disappearing the experience with the phrases "coerced into having sex" and "forced to have sex," you can write the authors of the article here: Shelley Murphy can be reached at shmurphy@globe.com, and Noah Bierman can be reached at nbierman@globe.com (contact information for the third author was not given). For general comments about Boston Globe news content only, e-mail comments@globe.com. Or, this link takes you to a comment page (for which I don't know if you need to register or not to use).
(And thanks to Melissa for letting me guest again! I wish it were about OMG horses again, but you can't have everything!)
